Office of Frontier Security
The Office of Frontier Security, or OFS, was a Solarian executive agency authorized in fourteenth century PD. ( , , , ) Acquired duties The Office of Frontier Security's duties also included promotion of stability along the League's frontiers through mediation and negotiation with the so-called Verge systems, as well as peaceful assistance for Verge systems wishing to become Solarian protectorates. The OFS became responsible for management of those protectorates. And In order to perform those duties OFS Governors, and OFS Commissioners in some circumstances, were authorized to enter into treaties with neighboring star nations. (WS1) The OFS wasn't responsible for non-frontier peripheral protectorates. ( ) Organization The OFS was a division of the Solarian League Ministry of Interior, whose headquarters were on Earth. The basic OFS organizational unit was the sector. There were, however, some differences between the outer sectors belonging to the League and administered by OFS: * generally the OFS official in charge of a protectorate sector was a Commissioner, appointed by the Ministry of the InteriorThe Madras Sector, facing the Talbott Cluster, was one such. (SI2) It is uncertain if a 'Commissioner' was the same position as the 'League High Commissioner' mentioned in A Grand Tour, * the OFS official in charge of a sector province was a Governor, as in the case of well developed Maya SectorProbably an exception occurred in the case of wealthy potential sector whose representatives negotiated more favorable terms in their absorption by the Solarian Leagu - according to the Talbotters, inhabitants of the Maya Sector had "bought" such an agreement. (SI1) There was some elasticity of terminology in these matters as Rear Admiral Rozsak observed that Maya Sector had a protectorate status. (WS2). OFS Governors and Commissioners were assisted by Lieutenant Governors and Vice-Commissioners. When an OFS Commissioner was incapable of performing his duties, his Vice-Commissioner acted as acting Commissioner. Lower level OFS officials were District Officers, probably in charge of a single planet or star system.As, for instance, on Boniface. Enforcement instruments OFS's own military forces were the Frontier Forces. These auxiliary military units, a combination of security and intervention units, were used in cases of insurrections against OFS administration, or the predations of the commercial interests who very often exploited OFS protectorate planets. ( , ) The OFS was also supported by the Solarian Gendarmerie and the SLN Frontier Fleet. Both organizations enjoyed a degree of autonomy at the sector level and were able to refuse questionable instructions or ordersMention at SI2 involved orders issued by an acting Commissioner's. The Solarian League Navy's Frontier Fleet nominally worked for or with the Office of Frontier Security, so OFS Sector Commissioners and Governors provided Frontier Fleet commanding officers with policy guidance and, to some extent, direction: * small Frontier Fleet detachments were permanently assigned to Commissioners' and Governors' office * OFS senior officials were authorized to call for Frontier Fleet intervetnion, which could also include Marine ground operations, in support of the Frontier Forces, when it was unable to manage a crisis, such as an insurrection on a protectorate planet. ( , , ) Controversy Because of poor supervision, bureaucratic degeneration, and rampant corruption, the OFS had become, well before 1900 PD, an agent of exploitation of its protectorate planets and a tool of outright expansionism into border areas. It provided fraudulent assistance and rigged referenda to justify extension of its control into adjoining areas. The purpose was to takeover and subsequently exploit newly seized Verge worlds, both politically and economically. ( , ) Without public or legislative League oversight, the Office of Frontier Security, and the Earth based bureaucracy which directed it, developed its a foreign policy, which consisted of pressure, faking requests for assistance from distressed worlds, and ultimately absorption and exploitation of Verge planets incapable of standing up to OFS on their own. The views of their inhabitants were of little account. The activities of OFS were made considerably more predatory and callous by corrupt dealings with the League's massive multi-stellar corporations and commercial interests. These corporations aided and supported Frontier Security's activities, in exchange for exploitation privileges of newly-acquired worlds under OFS authority, and with the expectation of OFS intervention in suppressing objection to that exploitation. In particular, many leading figures in Frontier Security had close, if concealed, connections with the those economic interests, often including Mesan corporations, including Manpower Incorporated. While Frontier Security's abuses were not secret, and often were the subject of protests by Solarian reformists, the majority of the League's population was generally unaware of the details of OFS's activities. Frontier Security regarded the Star Kingdom of Manticore as a threat to its interests (and to those of its Mesan partners), particularly after the discovery of the Lynx Terminus of the Manticore Junction, the probable extension of Manticore's influence on commercial traffic in more of League space. The requested annexation of the Talbott Cluster by the Star Kingdom was even more of a problem for OFS (and its supporters). The worlds which had requested annexation were both in Frontier Security's planned path of expansion into the Talbott Cluster bordering the Solarian League's Madras Sector, and much closer to Mesa itself than any other Manticoran outpost. To stop the annexation, Frontier Security and the Gendarmerie, at the hidden direction of, and assistance, of Mesa (especially the Jessyck Combine), developed and began to carry out a plan to sabotage it. This included arming fringe Cluster groups opposed to the annexation. The objective was to trigger a campaign of violence and terrorism, providing a pretext for OFS to intervene as a neutral Power to keep the peace. And, in so doing, wrestle the Cluster, and perhaps control of the Lynx Terminus, away from Manticore. ( ) Secret contingency plans In cooperation with the OFS, Frontier Fleet had prepared secret contingency plans for Solarian League protectorates and Verge Systems in case of widespread emrgency. They were quite brutal, and included actions which showed no respect for law or the sovereignty of the targeted planets and systems. * case Buccaneer - surprise piratical action against Verge star nations, specifically designed to destabilize them, permitting the OFS to take them over to stabilize matters * case Fabius - preemptive demolition actions against orbital facilities at protected systems, in cases in which local authorities denied economic concessions to commercial enterprises colluding with the OFS The contingency plans above became known to the Star Empire of Manticore when the RMN's Tenth Fleet, captured intact databases in the aftermath of the Second Battle of New Tuscany from squadron flagships of the SLN's Task Group 3021. ( ) Client states * Republic of Monica - one of the sources of mercenaries employed by the OFS (SI1) * Okada System - government established with covert support of the OFS officials (WS2) See also * Solarian Sectors * OFS controlled systems References Category:Solarian League Category:Government Category:Frontier Security